Recently, the Centre for Lifelong Learning Team caught up with Taiwo Ogunrinde, former student of the Gateway to HE course who then progressed to a degree and is currently studying her second year of the full-time Social Studies Degree. Here she shares with us the first of her seven tips for mature students:

Tip One: Don’t doubt your ability to be in the University environment. Doubt means you should try, and you should push yourself beyond the doubt.

Studying on the full-time Social Studies degree, Taiwo shares her lectures with a mixture of students from different paths and backgrounds. Some of these students are young adults who passed their A-levels with 3 A’s.

“You always wonder, how will I fit in with them? How will I be capable of competing with them? But after speaking with Steve, who is also my personal tutor, he helped me deal with my fears. He told me no matter your background, the results speak for themselves from the work you put in.”

Taiwo finished her first year successfully with an upper-class second honour, which includes achieving a first in some of her modules, including for a creative assignment in which she wrote about her own background and experiences.

“We’ve got the mature student advantage.” She says, “You’ve got life experience. You’ve gained this before starting your degree. I drilled my life experience into my essay and came out with a first.”